Multi-year agreement with Loblaw Companies Limited signed by Precima

Q4 sales gains posted by Metro

Canada retail sales remain sluggish as growth slows in 2nd halfSales for Canadian retailers continued to disappoint in September, adding to evidence consumers are paring back in the second half of this year. Retail sales rose 0.1% during the month, versus forecasts for a 1% gain, after dropping 0.1% in August. Receipts for the country’s retailers have been flat over the past four months, after one of the best starts to a year for the industry on record. It’s a slowdown that suggests the tailwinds spurring growth earlier this year are waning. That includes the effects of a ramp up in child benefits by the federal government last year that had a clear impact on consumption, but are now no longer adding to growth. (esmmagazine.com)

CA: Precima signs multi-year agreement with Loblaw Companies LimitedPrecima, a leading consulting and analytics firm, announced it has signed a multi-year, enterprise wide, agreement with Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's leading food and pharmacy retailer. Set to launch in 2018, the single access retail analytics portal will capture customer, marketing and merchandising insights for the company's grocery and pharmacy divisions. The portal will support improved joint business planning, category strategy, promotion, assortment and customer insights for Loblaw and its supplier partners. It will allow Loblaw to further leverage customer data and analytics. (newswire.ca)

CA: Metro posts Q4 sales gains Canadian supermarket operator Metro said that same-store sales turned positive in its fiscal fourth quarter amid slight basket inflation and despite an increasingly competitive environment. The Montreal-based retailer posted same-store sales gains of 0.4% in the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, amid a slight decline in traffic and inflation of 0.3%. The company said it is planning to expand its test of home delivery of groceries to Ontario by late fiscal 2018 or early fiscal 2019. Metro currently offers the service in Quebec, greater Montreal and Gatineau. It also offers click-and-collect service at seven locations. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2017 totaled $3.23 billion Canadian ($2.53 billion U.S.), up 10.2% compared with the fourth quarter of 2016. Excluding the extra week in 2017, fourth quarter sales were up 1.4%. (supermarketnews.com)

ATB sets out achievable expansion plan for 2018Ukraine’s leading retailer, ATB, announced an achievable expansion for 2018. The announcement comes after the release of ATB’s nine months results for 2017. ATB’s CEO, Boris Markov, announced that the chain will expand store numbers to reach 1,000 stores by the end of 2018. Focus for this expansion will be in western Ukraine, around the city of Lviv, and in the Kiev region. ATB also acquired two distribution complexes in Kiev and Lviv, earlier in 2017, to support this expansion. The chain will also refurbish 50 of its stores in 2018 and will make no changes to its EDLP pricing strategy. (igd)

Germany: Aldi building presence in French citiesAldi Nord has opened stores in central city locations in Paris and Nice. The new stores break with the retailer’s tradition of operating stores in areas with comparatively low rents and around the country’s major cities. The store in Paris is comparatively small, at 980 sq. m, while the one in Nice is reported to measure 1,400 sq. m, showing how Aldi is becoming more adaptable as it looks to find the best sites in the country. The stores use Aldi Nord’s new design, updating the décor, signage and range to make them more like a supermarket than traditionally. (igd)

UK: Co-op trials new “ultimate convenience" formatCo-op Food is trialling a new “ultimate convenience” format for its larger stores, as part of its Everyday Convenience Plus programme. The new format trial will take place at three stores located in Hornbury (West Yorkshire), East Leake (Leicestershire) and Walderslade (Kent). The three stores are all between 7,000 sq. ft. and 11,000 sq. ft. and have undergone a £3.8mln refit. The trial will take place for next three months and Co-op will then decide on where else to roll out the stores. The stores will feature a simpler and “more intuitive” store layout that helps shoppers save time and is better catered for convenience shopping missions. The new format is designed to cater for a larger three-day top-up shop. It is underpinned by fresh ranges in which prepared and semi-prepared meal solutions feature heavily. (igd)

Food sales boost Italian FMCG sector in Q3Italy saw a growth in FMCG sales in Q3 2017, driven largely by increased food sales, however non food segments experienced a decrease, according to data from IRI. In Q3, volume demand increased in supermarkets (+4.4%) and drugstores (+5.8%), while discounters (-2.0%) and hypermarkets (-1.4%) recorded a slowdown. The migration of a some purchases from discounters towards other distribution channels led to an increase of prices in the FMCG formats overall (+0.3%). Within the supermarket channel, 'superstores' (shops larger than 2,500 square metres) continue to be the top performers in Italy. (esmmagazine.com)

Billa Bulgaria to open new store in Plovdiv on Nov 29Billa Bulgaria, part of supermarket chain Billa owned by Germany's REWE Group, said it plans to open a new store in the city of Plovdiv on November 29. The new store will be Billa’s 117th in Bulgaria. The chain plans to open several new stores by the end of 2017. It has opened three new stores in November so far – two in Sofia and one in the city of Kardzhali. Billa entered the Bulgarian market in 2000. In Southeast Europe, the REWE Group also operates in Croatia. (seenews.com) AUS: Woolworths to open four new 'dark stores' to fight AmazonWoolworths will open as many as four new so-called "dark stores" used to pack and ship online orders by the end of next year as Australia's largest supermarket prepares to defend itself from Amazon. Chairman Gordon Cairns told the company's annual general meeting on Thursday that Woolworths was getting the supermarket chain into a position where it could compete with the e-commerce giant.(smh.com.au)

Holland: Spar supermarket chain coming back to GreeceDutch supermarket chain Spar is returning to Greece following a deal with the local retail group Asteras, after leaving the country in 2015, where it had a presence via the Veropoulos firm since 1969. The agreement with Asteras foresees the creation of Spar Hellas between the Greek and Dutch companies, with the local retailer’s network of 200 stores being transformed into Spar stores. All of the stores in the existing network will be overhauled to meet Spar’s standards, with work expected to begin by the end of the year and take two years to complete. (ekathimerini.com)

Conad opens three new stores in ItalyItalian supermarket chain Conad has opened 3 new stores, in the Abruzzo, Molise and Liguria regions. Conad Adriatico has rolled out a new store in Martinscuro, of which 600 square metres is dedicated to fresh produce. The store is equipped with energy-saving technologies, including a solar thermal plant for hot water production. The retailer has also inaugurated a Conad hypermarket in Montenero di Bisaccia, of which 900 square metres is dedicated to fresh products. The store uses LED technology that enables electricity savings of up to 70% compared to standard solutions. The retailer also has opened its seventh supermarket in Viareggio. The store has the usual sections, with special attention paid to the fresh department, organic and local products. (esmmagazine.com)

Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal Q3 profit upShufersal, Israel’s largest supermarket chain, said net profit rose in the third quarter, boosted by its private label products and cost cutting measures. The company posted net profit of 65mln shekels ($18.5mln), up from 51mln shekels a year earlier. Revenue slipped 0.7% to 3.02bln shekels due to the timing of the Jewish new year and Yom Kippur holidays in September, which reduced the number of days stores were open. Same store sales in the quarter fell 1.9% due to the holidays. (Reuters)

New Zealand Q3 retail sales advance 0.2%The total volume of retail sales in New Zealand added a seasonally adjusted 0.2% on quarter in the third quarter of 2017, Statistics New Zealand said. That beat forecasts for an increase of 0.1% but was down from the 1.8% spike in the three months prior. Supermarket and grocery had the highest sales increase, up 1.6% (NZ$78mln). Prices for this industry were up 1.0%. (markets.businessinsider.com)

France: Auchan/Alibaba deal turns up the heat on Carrefour in ChinaA partnership between French retailer Auchan and internet giant Alibaba risks pushing Carrefour further behind in China and could persuade its new boss to sell out of the country. Alexandre Bompard, who took the helm at Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart, in July and on Jan. 23 will unveil his turnaround plan for the French company. Bompard has to decide whether to stay or go in China, where Carrefour has spent years trying to fix a business whose sales still fell 5.4% in the third quarter amid fierce competition from local players and a buoyant online market. Carrefour has been trying to reposition in China, where it makes 5% of group sales, having been too focused on large hypermarkets there. It has been expanding into e-commerce and convenience stores and opening logistics centers to cut costs. (Reuters)

SPAR China Partners further expands with new store openingsIn the last few months, SPAR China Partners have opened a number of new stores in different regions, varying from SPAR Neighbourhood and a SPAR lifestyle Supermarket to large SPAR Hypermarkets, showing the diversity of the SPAR format in this highly competitive market. Please, click here to read more at eprretailnews.com